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If you pull the cluster apart, there's a trim pot on the side of the tacho which calibrates the ratio of movement. You move the trim pot with a small flat blade screwdriver. You might have to remove the speedo to get access (just a few screws). If you can get hold of an automotive multimeter that has a tacho function, you can use this to calibrate against, with engine running. I guessed mine. On a V8, one method to get you close is to set your engine idle at an indicated 1000 rpm (on a 6cyl tacho). If you note where you start then keep the engine the same, wind the trim pot back so the tacho now reads 750. If you're going the other way, just reverse the numbers. Good luck!

Yeah I know I crap on a bit... Cam specs: Advertised duration is the absolute amount of crankshaft degrees that the "lump" on the cam lobe rises above the base circle from start to finish. It's an indication only. The more important spec you look for in a cam grind is the duration at 0.050" valve lift. This is the accepted industry standard where the point at which all slack and flex in the lifters, pushrods and rockers is taken up, and which any measurable air flow at the valve happens. A hydraulic lifter cam will have a slightly more aggressive ramp up to the lumpy bit than a solid cam, as hydraulic lifters can cushion the shock slightly. This is why you can't interchange hydraulic cams for solids and vice versa. Lift is obvious so I won't explain that, other than the rule of thumb for stock valve gear (on a clevo or crossy is a limit of 0.500 lift. Going bigger than this is pointless anyway, unless you do some port work and fit bigger valves. LC = lobe centres. Also called LSA (lobe separation angle). Confusingly, this spec is measured not by crank degrees but on the actual camshaft itself. If you took the halfway point of both inlet and exhaust lobes of one cylinder and drew an imaginary line through each, the angle created by these lines is measured as "lobe centres". For a given cam duration, a wider LC gives a more sedate idle and good low-end torque. A narrow LC for the same duration gives more valve overlap, so has a lopey idle but comes alive higher in the rpm range. The opening and closing events of both the inlet and exhaust control the rpm at which the cam operates best. You can alter this to an extent by advancing or retarding the cam with a multi-keyway crank gear. That's about it for a crash-course in cam specs

Anyway... How did we get so far off on a tangent? For those wanting to build a mild Clevo, I just ordered a Crow 21666 with following specs. Adv. Inlet: 270 Adv. Exh : 280 Inlet@ 0.50: 204 Exh@ 0.50: 214 Lift inlet: 0.484 Lift exh: 0.510 LC : 112 A very slight step up from my current one (208/208 @0.50), a bit more exhaust lobe is all. I'll post again once it's in and running (for those still interested). Expecting good torque, but mostly would be nice to get #7 cylinder back after it's had a bludge for a few weeks.

Tweaker the point is that the fans come on mostly when stopped, the engine is making no power except for turning itself over. As for hp, they draw maybe 8 amps each, times 12 volts, that's 96 watts, (less than 0.1 kW) or about the same as one high beam headlight. If you had 2 of them, that's 0.2 kW. Your aircon takes shitloads more than that (say 3-5 kW) but nobody ever thinks about that. An engine-driven fan screaming its tits off can chew 5-10 kW. Tractors, trucks, plant equipment or any slow-moving, hard-working machinery might benefit from them but there's absolutely no need for it on a passenger car.

Wow this is getting far out!

Very much sounds like a vacuum leak. Check every single line coming off the manifold, check for splits at the end of every hose (very common) and check PCV valve by putting your finger over it. Squeeze the brake booster line shut with pliers. Leave no stone unturned... Crimp every hose coming off to see if it's the culprit. Spray the shit out of every joint, throttle shaft, gasket flange with WD40 when running and listen for change in RPM.

A workmate got a remanufactured B&M TH350 through Rocket, went to tighten some fitting into the housing and the whole thing broke in half. They found that the casing was paper-thin. They got the run-around from Rocket, getting bounced back-and forth between them and B&M in the States, being accused of abusing the gearbox (the thing hadn't even been started). Eventually after a lot of arguing, they took it back. He went with a powerglide.

In a Corty with the right gearing, that puts you in the 13's... Respect!

I hate engine-driven fans. They work the hardest when you don't need them (on the highway) and the least when you need them the most (at idle). They clutter up your engine bay, and are a bitch when you need to do work on something, like changing belts on the side of the road. They put lots of strain on your belts (ever revved a cold engine and done a sick fan belt burnout?) and as you stated, take horsepower (and fuel) to run exactly when they're not needed. so I guess I'm one of those dickheads then?

Just saying, for the uninformed, that any amount of synthetic while running in is a very bad idea. It even says so on some oil containers. I personally think it's a bad idea at any time, but particularly in new engines or old, carboned-up ones.

My guess is that AT Racing sells them because they're cheap. They're available from Precision International and I'll bet AT gets them from there too. As for their quality, well I did research on Dynotech before buying one and people seemed happy with them overall, but I get the impression you'd skip them in a high performance build. Goes without saying really. I might have just got a dud. I certainly did everything I should have done to bed it in. Just think how Joe public might have treated their brand new Falcon in the 80's. I'll bet nowhere near as carefully as we treat our own built engines, yet he'd be pissed if his factory Ford Donk didn't get to 300,000 k's without surgery. Regardless, I'll be chucking in some zinc or moly lube to bed in my next cam. Cheap insurance and looking on the bright side, I can do that without worrying about hurting the rest of the internals now that my engine's loosened up a little and rings bedded in. I'd not feel comfortable adding slippery shit to my engine before it's had a chance to bed properly. BTW Synthetic oil is a no-no (I hate the shit in engines anyway).

Yep, toe-in is there to allow for deflection under brakes. It's also for high speed stability. Try driving at freeway speeds with a bit of toe-out... You'll never keep the thing straight. Funnily enough, toe-out is dialed in on some race cars to give a more snappy turn-in to corners, at the expense of straight-line stability. Ok caster: Here we go.... If you look at a shopping trolley wheel, its contact point with the ground is always behind the pivot point. This ensures that the wheel always follows where the trolley goes. The thing with trolleys is that all four wheels can pivot, meaning all four wheels follow what the trolley is doing. If you fixed the back wheels in the straight ahead position, then you have the trolley wanting to move straight ahead, the same setup as a car. Any object wants to move in a straight line, not a circle, so the front wheels that are on a pivot tend to constantly straighten themselves out from a turn. Caster on a car is achieved using specific mounting points for the pivot, In the case of a falcon, it's in the ball joints. If you looked sideways at the wheel and could see the balljoints as well, and drew a line through both of them to the ground, you'd see that the tyre contact patch sits slightly behind it, meaning the wheels will try and return to the straight ahead position when driving. Increasing caster increases steering effort but gives better steering "feel". Power steering needs more caster than manual to have any kind of feel. On an X-Falcon, this is done by bringing the bottom ball joint forward, using the adjustable radius rod, sometimes called a "caster rod" (the diagonal one facing forward), winding one nut out and the other in. They're either side of the radius rod bushes ("donuts"), which have a habit of becoming spongy over time and you lose steering response as a result. Nolathane bushes fix that a lot, but are a bit more harsh with road noise. Anything else I can crap on about?

Maybe you could set the mixture while in drive? Maybe squirt something flammable down the carby at idle in drive and see if rpm comes up. WD40 works. Aerostart is better Are you 100% of no vac leaks? Brake booster ok? Pcv doing it's job? I had one on mine recently that was leaking too much at idle. They get carbon in them and stick open, causing too much air to be sucked in. Pull it out and stick your finger over the end. Rpm shouldn't drop too much.

No need for expensive gear mate, just a set of ramps and a couple of spanners. Yeah your eyesight is more reliable than what you give it credit for. A spirit level helps if you mount it on the wheel too. Checking tyre wear patterns is a good indicator after a bit of driving. Don't worry, toe is easy too, you just need a tape measure. Measure your wheel track across the front between the wheels, then across the back. The difference is your toe-in/out. Getting camber right means that the direction is not too affected by potholes, bumps, etc. It should load up in corners nicely without ripping the wheel out of your hands, and wear evenly for the kind of driving you do. Too much neg camber means it might lose steering feel in straight ahead position but it will tramline like a bitch. Those Hondas you see slammed on the ground with 5 degrees of camber would be a nightmare to drive, and dangerous. Fashion slaves indeed. Must have shares in the tyre company they use too. If you want I can explain castor too. That's mainly the one that gives you steering feel and returns the steering back to centre.

Yeah 2-1/2 inches is decent... It probably got lighter because of the camber. As you lower it, the top arm goes past horizontal and starts to tip the top ball joint inwards, giving neg camber. I'll bet it rides in ruts on the road like a mongrel! As ILIED says, the eccentric on the lower arm pivot is where you adjust. You can tell by looking at it if it's in all the way or not. At neutral camber, the bolt should be sitting at the bottom of the eccentric washer. Neg camber, bolt moves outwards towards wheel, moves arm with it. Pos camber, bolt moves in towards sump. Yeah steering geometry is a bit of a headfuck but it's mostly in the terminology where you get lost. I've learnt the basics from my trade but taught myself by driving old clunkers and getting a feel for the adjustments. That and I'm a tightarse and won't pay some pimply-faced apprentice who only knows how to replace a strut and adjust toe-in to mess with my car and set it up exactly how I don't want it. X-Falcons are great for adjustability, as just about all aspects can be changed. But like a Holley carb, this allows you more freedom to fuck it up. They go out of whack when you hit big bumps too. Mid-corner potholes are a classic, which tend to put a sideways shock load on your camber adjustment and throw it way out. When hitting bumps to check my toe-in, I don't hit big ones... I like a bit of mechanical sympathy. The camber correction kits you're referring to might actually be for E-series Falcs, as they have much less adjustability. They normally use shims in the top arm mounts to get the camber/castor adjustment and the bottom arm is fixed. The better kit eliminates the shim setup and uses an eccentric on each pivot to give wider, easier adjustment. As far as I know, X-Falcons don't have an upper arm kit, but you might be able to shim yours to get your neg camber back out to reasonable, that's if you've run out of adjustment at the bottom arm. Sorry for ranting, just need to explain it properly.

Yep! First thing I thought of too. As you move the lower control arm in or out in relation to the chassis, the length of the tie rods must be adjusted accordingly. I like to take a basic toe measurement from a part of the tyre tread that stays the same all round the tyre and measure to the other side. Compare front measurement to back. Go with a couple of mm toe-in and take the car for a drive. Make some minor adjustments and get the steering wheel centered. You can tell which way your wheels need to go by hitting a pothole or sharp bump on one side. This causes that wheel to momentarily skip off the ground and thus have no influence on the direction of steering. If the wheels are excessively toed-in, the opposite wheel that still touches the ground will cause the nose to dart slightly toward the bump. If there is too much toe-out, the nose will dart away from it. One final check is to apply the brakes firmly and let go of the wheel (save for maybe a fingertip on it to feel what's happening). If the wheel stays straight then your toe adjustment is ok. If it squirms or wanders under brakes, it's toeing out too much. This can be caused by floppy/worn bushes that distort under braking force. A bit more toe-in can compensate, but it's a compromise. If you car is heavily lowered, the geometry may be such that the camber goes negative even with the adjustment all the way in. On older X-series Falcons, the top arm likes to be about level with the ground, at rest. Anything under or over this angle and the geometry is a bit screwy. Example: my XE has stiff-as front springs that are also pretty high, and manual steering. With the 6 cyl motor, it was terrible and heavy especially on turns, and needed bullshit castor to get any kind of feel in the steering. It also had horrible bump-steer. But with the V8 installed, it actually feels quite nice to drive, as the front sits at least half an inch lower. It actually got lighter! Still going to lower it and install power steer though.

I would have seen the chip for sure when putting it in. It's about 3mm long, on the back of the lobe on the high side of the taper. Ran it in on 15W40 diesel oil (high detergent), like i said, 20 min at 2000rpm (in 2 stages to prevent overheating). I don't reckon it was a bad run-in as the lobe tip looks perfect and the entire surface of the lobe and base circle are uniform in colour. Lifters were whatever came with the "reco" engine. They seem ok. It's an otherwise stock engine, with nothing special as far as valvesprings go, or anything else for that matter. The engine is a torquey cruiser. As I said the chip is on the back of the lobe, so short of hammering from valve bounce (unlikely), I'm stuffed if I know. Pain in the arse as it's my daily driver. I can get a Crow from the same mob (Precision) for $208, only 89 bucks more than a Dynotec ($121). Lifters are $17/box of 4. Should just bite the bullet i guess.

Yeah mate it's a Clevo. Very mild build with stock bits, I'm mainly after torque and economy. Like I said, happy with the performance but shitty about the quality. If it was a wiped lobe from a poor break-in I'd understand, but I did everything right. 2000rpm for 20 min, correct lube, decent oil. I'm a mechanic after all, so I should know. I'm in Sydney so I might go to camtech and have a chat. Cheers mate.

If you have a drift long enough, say 8 ft long... No seriously, it was a general statement about bearing cups. Welding them out is the most successful method i've used, but only do it if they're too tight to pull out. Installing a new one should be as easy as slipping it in by hand. If it's too tight, there's probably a dag of metal or a galled housing, either of which can be fixed with a bit of emery cloth.

The last one I did was stuck in there good, possibly spun and welded itself. If cups are too hard to knock out with a drift or slide hammer, I run a bead of mig weld all round inside the cup, then as the weld cools, the cup shrinks and will literally fall out, every time. Just be careful not to weld the cup to the tube. You'll be in a world of shit if you do.

Remember with a wastegate, you're dumping mostly pressure, not so much flow. It would take a serious amount of power to have that much gas going through the system to need a second wastegate. I'll ask my brother if there's a rule-of-thumb formula for horsepower/boost/wastegate size. He's a big turbo head.

If not doing much stop-start, why not slip in a 2.78 diff?

Auto-to-manual conversion on my EF, economy went from 12.5l/100 km to 11l/100. Also, keeping the same diff you'll be sitting on about 2100 rpm at 100 (with 0.74 fifth). Still much better than current setup though.

Hey that's an idea... A Weber carby-powered Webber. You're an ideas man!

Next time try heating the centre hub of the balancer with a paint stripper gun (yes they're hot enough... I've started a Weber barby with one). Heat it up just enough to get the paint smouldering, then whack it on quickly.